Announcements and Project Updates

Avonside Girls’ High School and Shirley Boys’ High School schemes announced

The amended enrolment schemes for Avonside Girls’ High School and Shirley Boys’ High School were announced today by both schools.

Thank you to all those who took the time to provide the schools with feedback during the consultation. From the outset, both schools have been aware that the future zones for their schools would need to be appropriate for their new location and the community feedback was an invaluable part of the process and was taken into account when making the decision.

A considerable amount of time has been spent discussing future zone options with both schools with the aim of ensuring they can effectively manage future demographic and roll changes.

We want to acknowledge the time and effort that both Boards have put into planning for their new enrolment schemes.

Secondary schools in greater Christchurch have undertaken a joint effort to develop an approach to address enrolment zone challenges in the city.

The Ministry of Education has been working closely with the secondary schools to identify options to optimize the secondary schools enrolment network and determine the best future approach for secondary education in greater Christchurch.

The report prepared by KPMG following their engagement with schools as part of the work undertaken by the Canterbury West Coast Secondary Principals Association is available here.

END

August 2017

Christchurch Technology Advisory Board

The Ministry of Education has been working with the sector to establish a Technology Advisory Board for greater Christchurch.

There are almost 10,000 year 7 and 8 students in greater Christchurch and two thirds of these students access technology education at schools other than the schools they are enrolled at (from provider schools). The remaining third access technology education at their own schools (through self-delivery).

The board will explore the background working group data that led to the formation of the Christchurch Technology Advisory Board and welcomes the opportunity to provide co-constructed sector support to teachers of technology.

The board will seek the voices from within the year 7 to 8 sector to ascertain the needs of students, teachers and school leaders and will be working towards supporting teachers in the development of programmes.

The following is an update and summary of feedback received at the end of the last phase of the consultation and next steps.

A technology working group has been formed to take into account the suggested ideas submitted from the initial consultation, to provide more detail around what has been proposed and explore the implications the different options will have on future technology delivery across greater Christchurch.

The working group is made up of a range of representatives from across the education sector. They will not be tasked with: identifying/recommending new locations for technology provision, staffing provision, reducing the number of technology centres or reducing the availability of provision through other methods or processes.

Following a request for registrations of interest for the Establishment Board of Trustees (E BoT) for St Francis of Assisi Catholic School, a large number of well qualified people expressed their desire to support the new school. We were delighted to receive such a high calibre of nominations.

The legislation states that the Minister can appoint only five members to an E BoT, and we are pleased to advise that the successful candidates were:

Bill Morgan

Liz Gardiner

Tom Music

Matt Tippen

Alison Wilkie

The E BoT members bring a range of skills, knowledge and experience to their task, and it is clear from the other applications that they will be able to draw on a supportive and talented school community, as they work to further develop the vision for the new school.

Working together the E BoT and the community will be best placed to ensure that all students and their families will be supported to make the best of the opportunities and benefits offered by St Francis of Assisi School.

We wish the E BoT well and look forward to working with them for a positive future.

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16 December 2014

Catholic Primary Schooling in Mairehau, Christchurch

The following is an update on today’s announcement regarding the Catholic Primary Schooling in Mairehau, Christchurch.

A new Catholic primary school is proposed to open in early 2016 in Christchurch.

Following consideration of the consultation feedback the Minister of Education has agreed with Bishop Barry Jones’ proposal to cancel the integration agreements for Our Lady of Fatima and St Paul School, Christchurch. This will be effective from 27 January 2016 and the Bishop has agreed that the schools will close on this date ahead of the proposed opening of a new school.

Bishop of Christchurch, Bishop Barry Jones has requested change to schooling in order to align education with the newly formed parish boundaries of Saint Francis of Assisi Parish, Mairehau.

The Bishop will now apply to integrate and establish a new school on the existing Our Lady of Fatima site. The proposal for the new school would include a maximum roll that can accommodate the students from both the existing schools.

The Ministry of Education staff will provide support to schools and the community throughout the transition process.